ArtSlut

Spinning San Antonio Fiesta: June 13, 2012

The Feast Day of St. Anthony of Padua was celebrated in SA for the third year in a row at the Spinning San Antonio Fiesta, staged right in in front of the Alamo, in what the event’s instigator, artist/provocateur Rolando Briseño, calls an act of “cultural adjustment.” The site is located on what were the grounds of Mission San Antonio del Valero. “Many people don’t even know that’s the real name of the Alamo,” says Briseño, “or that their were over a hundred years of colonial history before the 1836 battle.” The ceremonies began at 6:30 p.m. with the saint’s effigy carried in procession round Alamo Plaza, circled by members of lowrider clubs O.G. Traditions and the Pushrods, followed by music and dance, with vocalist Bianca Sapet, musicians Los Nahuatlatos, and the danzante group Ameyaltonal Tejaztlan. As the music rose, the statue (mounted on an axis) was flipped over and over, as invocations to the saint are intoned asking for assistance in ending the culture wars.